2 judge candidates headed to runoff

None of candidates vying for the only open judicial seat in Tuesday’s primary election won enough votes to claim victory outright, so the top two hopefuls will face each other in a runoff this November.

Of the three candidates who ran for San Diego Superior Court office No. 25, none captured 50 percent or more of the total votes, which would have made a runoff unnecessary.

Instead, Brad Weinreb and Ken Gosselin received 39 percent and 31 percent respectively, when all of the precincts had been tallied.

A third candidate, Michele Hagan, came in at 30 percent.

Weinreb, a deputy attorney general, has pegged his campaign to his years of experience as a state prosecutor arguing mostly post-conviction and appellate litigation.

Gosselin devoted his law practice to real estate cases, and in recent years has served full time as a volunteer attorney judge pro-tem handling traffic and small claims cases in Superior Court.

Weinreb said Wednesday that he was "thrilled and excited" to be moving forward to the next election, particularly given that he had the most votes in the three-way contest.

"It shows that voters care about the qualifications of their judges," he said.

Earlier in the campaign, Weinreb challenged Gosselin in court contending that Gosselin had made misleading claims about his experience and education in his campaign and materials and proposed ballot statement. In court documents, Weinreb’s attorney referred specifically to statements he said could lead people to falsely believe that Gosselin was a judge, or at least, employed by the court.

Gosselin denied those claims but changed how his occupation was noted on the ballot.

His campaign adviser has said there was never any intent to mislead, and that the candidate’s credentials are a matter of public record.

Gosselin did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment on the election.

The winner of this race will claim the seat vacated by Judge Cynthia Bashant, whose nomination to the federal bench in San Diego was recently confirmed.

In all the other contested races, four incumbent judges were re-elected.